beijing, xinning and beyond.

The moment i stepped off the plane in Beijing i knew i was in china, not because of the signs full characters, the many chinese faces or the fact that i couldn’t understand anything being said around me. It was the smell. If you’ve ever walked down the back alleys of Melbourne in search of one of the more secluded restaurants or bars you no doubt know the smell. A pungent odour that is hard to describe as anything other than asian street smell, and seeing as though beijing is comprised of many streets and its an asian street the smell was no surprise.

I’m not complaining though, its all part and parcel being in China, along with the busy streets, stray dogs, street hawkers selling you anything from clothes and trinkets to food (all crazy kinds of food mind you, anything is on the menu, innards and Dog are common, in fact i was witness to the skinning of 3 dogs on the street outside a resaurant near my hostel, mmmm mmmm – they were probably strays…)

After a few short days in beijing, enough time for the uninnitiated to get acusomted to the crazyness of a large forgien city, we were off to start our joiney to Tibet. After piling into 3 taxis, we crammed 4 of the 8 into the first one, piling bags into every crack we could find and passing them ontop of those already seated. The driver could barely change gear but we mannaged, the 2nd taxi driver demanded we get a 3rd one so for the second group the ride was far more comfortable! The destination was the West beijing train station, a monolithic building that just stood impressivly over everything else around, it wasnt tall like a sky scraper it was just LARGE and imposing.

We got our first taste of ‘true’ china in the waiting room surrounded by bags and people crammed in so tight that it was as much fun as a hedge maze when trying to get form one end of the room to the other with patriotic symolbs and images linning the walls.

We jumped onto a massive train, a good 500m long, well maybe not that long but it was huge! Our carrages were sleepers, 3 racks high and about 2 feet wide each with about 2 feel walking space down the isle with a few seats. The ride itself was 24 hours but it flew by.

Xinning is an amazing city, cast agains the backdrop of the mountians (its situated in a vallet) that jut up sharply into the sky around it. Its arrid and dry but beautiful in its own way. It’s a real pity that no one where really enjoys the outdoors as i have come to. I dont think anyone could really blame the people here, life is all about day to day existence, struggling to get by in a really harsh world. It really lets me appreciate the oppotunities i have in Australia and norway to hang out in gods wonderful creation.

We met our host, and He’s an amazing guy, a crazy norweigain outdoors guy. I’ll tell you more when i get out of china as things are meant to be hush hush, better safe than sorry aye?

Anyways we’re sitting at about 2300m at the moment, spending a few days here to acclimatise to the altitude before we move up to 3300m at the english school. We have 2 weeks of teaching english ahead of us and will be going for a big hike at some point, hopefully making it up to 5300m or so. Anyways theres a large argument about the differences between male and female communication its getting heated… and very distracting… so have a good one. I’ll try and write something with a little more cohesion later.

travel

Dont you just love travel,

The long farewells before you leave, milking every last second till you run out to the awaiting bus to rush off. Driving along doing your mental farwells to the country side as the landmarks slide by disapearing behind you for the last time in a long while. Waiting in the cold with snow lightly falling around you when someone suddenly realises why their cold... a jacket left behind at home. A mad dash by a sibling to the station bearing what was left behind for them only to see your train dissapear off in the distance. But it is great when you find a nice conductor to send it down the line an hour later to your waiting arms.

What about when your flight is delayed, and you sit, waiting, wondering if it will ever arrive, 4:55 turns to 5:20 turns to 5:55 turns to 6:30... are you ever going to leave or do they cancel the flight? Oh and the connection in helsinki (those dastedly helsinki connections) with a flight to beijing with only 45mins grace (the numbers dont add up, you’re going to miss it!)

Thankfully they apologise for te inconvienience and feel you at the airport while you wait, and you somehow manage to get mroe food than your voucher allows for, YaY for free cookies, they come in handy the next day on the cold streets of helsinki...

So its safe to say the connection has been missed and a loverly night on the floor of the airport in finland awaits. Well it was safe to say the connection was missed, however, we didnt quite spend the evening on the floor of the airport.

Rather, we were shipped off to the local Ramada hotel, a 4 star joint with 3 meals catered for, a gym, sauna and amayingly comforable beds! All paid for by the airline. Smoked duck for dinner, buffet breakfast with crossants, bacon, and much much more and a salmon lunch. Not bad for the first meal of our trip where we are ‘doing it rough backpackers style in china’.

Though our plans were slightly hindered and i missed out on my chance to catch up with an old friend flick in beijing it was a nice chance to hang out as a group and ust relax before our big journey in China begun. We managed a brief visit to helsinki city centre to visit some nice churches and wander the streets. I chased rabbits through the snow in front of finlandia, a massive theater center in the heart of the city, i didnt manage to catch any though =(

We arrived in beijing this morning, and have made our way to the hostel we are staying at, everyone is pretty wrecked from the flight and taking the opportunity to crash for a while before we explore the city streets and get some food. YaY! Chinese food! The first in a long time for me, its going to be great. I did got for a quick walk with the guys though, nick, daniel and lars while the others slept. We wandered teh back streets and checked out a few stores. i seem to be remembering a fair few of the chiense phrases i learnt back in my school days, i look back at te last time i was in beijing, its 7 years! It doesnt seem like that long ago! Practiced my haggling skills, they need a little practice, i managed to bump teh price UP by 2 yuan (oops), I think i got confuzzled when thinking in numbers in 2 different langauges, i dont know how all you guys who speak english as a 2^nd language do it so well!!!

Anyway, i should go and snooze a little before we wander the streets. Will be heading off from beijing on Friday i think, will be an interesting train trip to xining! We’ll see!

Zai Jian! (good bye)